A4-0078/95

Resolution on human rights in the world in 1993-1994 and the Union's human rights policy

The European Parliament,

-having regard to Articles B, F, J, J.1 and J.7 of the Treaty on European Union and Articles 130u, 228 and 238 of the Treaty establishing the European Community,

-having regard to the resolution adopted by the Council and the representatives of the governments of the Member States meeting in the Council on 28 November 1991 on human rights, democracy and development,

-having regard to the Joint Declaration by the European Parliament, the Council and the Commission of 5 April 1977 on fundamental rights,

-having regard to the conclusions of the Presidency at the European Council meetings in Brussels (10/11 December 1993), Corfu (24/25 June 1994) and Essen (9/10 December 1994),

-having regard to its resolution of 12 March 1993 on human rights in the world and Community human rights policy in 1991/1992,

-having regard to its resolution of 21 April 1994 on human rights in the European Union's foreign policy,

-having regard to its resolutions adopted since the previous annual report, in particular those of:

.27 May 1993 on the United Nations World Human Rights Conference in Vienna in June 1993,

.13 July 1993 on human rights, democracy and development,

.18 November 1993 on the protection of the rights of journalists on dangerous missions,

.8 February 1994 on the role of the Union within the UN and the problems of reforming the UN,

.9 February 1994 on action required internationally to provide effective protection for indigenous peoples,

.9 February 1994 on respect for human rights and the economic exploitation of prisoners and children worldwide,

.20 April 1994 on ethnic cleansing,

.20 April 1994 on the right of humanitarian intervention,

.21 April 1994 on the creation of an international criminal tribunal,

.27 October 1994 on attacks against intellectuals, artists and journalists by fundamentalist terror groups,

-having regard to the Council Memorandum on the activities of the European Union in the field of human rights, 1994 (C4-0086/95),

-having regard to Rule 148 of its Rules of Procedure,

-having regard to the report of the Committee on Foreign Affairs, Security and Defence Policy and the opinion of the Committee on Development and Cooperation (A4-0078/95),

A.whereas the fiftieth anniversary of the end of the Second World War should be celebrated solemnly by the European institution which, by its democratic nature and purpose, is attached to respect for and the promotion of human rights,

B.convinced of the need to maintain a duty to preserve the memory of the victims of the Holocaust in order to build a community of purpose and a political union based on freedom, respect for differences and the consistent rejection of intolerance, fanaticism, racism and anti-semitism in the context of an international legal order founded on the principle of justice,

C.alarmed at the success of racist and ultra-nationalist movements in many Member States of the Union and in other European countries, and concerned at the silence or under-reaction of democratic parties which thereby contribute to undermining the rule of law and legitimizing xenophobic reactions,

D.convinced that the present celebrations should be used as an opportunity to assert the principles of the universality, indivisibility and interdependence of fundamental human rights and of the need to develop them within a state based on the rule of law,

E.concerned at the scale of the challenges before the international community, faced with crimes of genocide and ethnic cleansing, unparalleled population movements, aggression against civilian populations that are the victims of conflicts, the rise of fanaticism and the denial of freedom of expression, disregard for minority rights and the growth of exclusion and marginalization,

F.concerned that the international arms trade, feeding the above-mentioned conflicts, is once again expanding,

G.determined to make use of the opportunities open to it and the powers conferred on it by virtue of its consultative, control and monitoring role in the establishment and implementation of the Common Foreign and Security Policy,

H.resolved to ensure, with a view to the Intergovernmental Conference due to be held in 1996, that the promotion of and respect for human rights and democratic principles are clearly established as fundamental components of this fledgling foreign policy,

I.recalling that the credibility of such a policy is undoubtedly dependent on the application of the established principles by the European institutions themselves within the Member States of the Union and in their bilateral relations with third countries; welcoming the fact that its Committee on Civil Liberties and Internal Affairs now examines the policy conducted in this respect on an annual basis,

J.whereas the EU Treaty makes no provision for protecting the rights of and guaranteeing equal opportunities for the physically and mentally disabled,

K.determined to state its position on the major events which have occurred during the period under review (1993-1994) by basing its reflections on the link between respect for human rights and the promotion of democracy, formulating proposals with a view to reforming the Treaties and establishing possible and realistic forms of action vis-à-vis the Council and the Commission,

L.particularly convinced that, for this purpose, a reply must be given to the Memorandum published by the Council for the European Parliament on the activities of the European Union in the field of human rights in 1994,

M.determined to support the implementation of action plans or programmes to which the Union and the Member States have subscribed in international or regional conferences and, more specifically, programmes to combat expressions of intolerance - concerned in this connection by the conclusions of the Special Rapporteur for the UN Commission on Human Rights on contemporary forms of racism and xenophobia - and projects to protect and promote minority rights,

N.whereas support for the development of the right or duty of intervention and for humanitarian action should not be used as a substitute for a proper external policy, although it is an important aspect of that policy,

O.convinced that the first requirement should be to call on the Union's partners to respect the obligations freely entered into in the context of international agreements, and to integrate them in their national legislations,

P.whereas the prevention of crises and conflicts calls for an extensive and efficient effort by the Union's Member States and institutions, particularly as regards stricter controls on arms exports to potential areas of conflict and arms trading with governments known for their lack of respect for international law, and recognizing the progress made in the Lomé Convention and the debates within the framework of ACP countries,

Q.aware that statements of principle must lead to a policy of conditionality, accompanied by aid programmes, in keeping with the abovementioned resolution of the Council and the Member States of 28 November 1991,

R.whereas, in relation to respect for human rights and democracy, the relevant policy should be formulated not only in terms of conditionality in the context of development cooperation, but should lay particular emphasis on positive encouragement, training and education measures,

S.whereas, as the Commission points out in its report on the implementation in 1993 of the Resolution of the Council and of the Member States meeting in the Council on human rights, democracy and development, adopted on 28 November 1991, the principle that international cooperation must focus especially on positive measures providing incentives for the promotion of democracy and human rights means that the use of sanctions should be considered only if all other means have failed and should not penalize the population of the countries concerned (maintenance of humanitarian and food aid),

T.aware of the need to continue the rationalization of the budgetary process in order to mark out even more clearly appropriations in the Commission's operating budget which concern human rights and democratization, with a view to monitoring their implementation and assessing their impact,

U.determined to ensure that the interinstitutional dialogue on the promotion of and respect for human rights in the world is properly structured and to examine the action taken by the Council and the Commission on its resolutions or recommendations,

V.paying tribute also, on the occasion of the 80th anniversary of the extermination of the Armenian people, to the victims of the genocide, which reached its peak in 1915, of a people who had been present in western Europe for centuries,

GENERAL PRINCIPLES

1.Pays solemn tribute, on the occasion of the fiftieth anniversary of the liberation of the death camps and the end of the Second World War in Europe, to the victims of the Holocaust and intends to abide by the principles of humanism and tolerance which, as a reaction to these events, form the basis of attempts to bring the peoples and nations of Europe closer together;

2.Reaffirms its duty, as the world's only democratically elected multi-national parliament, to exercise its powers of initiative and supervision to ensure that the promotion of human rights and the principles on which the rule of law is based are actually taken into account in defining and implementing the Common Foreign and Security Policy;

3.Calls on the Council, the Commission and the governments of the Member States to follow its recommendations in formulating and implementing trade, development and cooperation policies and the Common Foreign and Security Policy; reiterates in this context the importance of applying the conditionality principle, and so rejects the almost automatic priority given to economic interests over respect for human rights in international trade;

4.Wishes to consolidate the advances made so far, in particular on the basis of the previous annual reports on human rights in the world, by systematically responding to the Memorandum forwarded by the Council and relevant reports by the Commission on the European Union's activities in this field;

5.Advises the Council and Commission to aim at a new stage by implementing the undertakings made to transform the human rights and democracy sections of the fledgling external policies into a genuinely effective, realistic and credible instrument for the promotion of the humanistic values underlying the process of Community integration and the present building of the Union;

6.Calls on the Commission to rearrange the division of its portfolios and reform its working methods as soon as possible to enable a coherent human rights and humanitarian aid policy to be worked out and implemented in a responsible and transparent manner under the control of a single Commissioner;

7.Calls for the Union's powers and obligations in terms of a coherent human rights and humanitarian aid policy to be clearly mentioned and firmly anchored in the Treaties when they are revised;

8.Invites the Member States, the Commission and the EU to strengthen the human rights and democracy clause within the Lomé and ACP framework;

PROBLEMS ON AN UNPARALLELED SCALE

Crimes of genocide and ethnic cleansing

9.Condemns firmly acts calling into question the very values on which Community integration was based, namely the crimes of genocide, ethnic cleansing and systematic rape in Rwanda and the former Yugoslavia;

10.Strongly opposes any kind of ethnic cleansing, whether by forced assimilation or by forced exclusion, deportation or even extermination;

11.Supports the international community's attempts and the major contribution of the European Union to provide local populations with humanitarian aid, but requests that the governments of the Member States, the Council and the Commission establish prevention systems, on the one hand, and define a genuine foreign policy, on the other, to avoid being caught in a trap and allowing humanitarian efforts to take the place of political decisions;

12.Supports, as an essential aspect of prevention, and in accordance with its previous demands for action to be taken against crimes going unpunished, the implementation of United Nations Security Council resolutions setting up ad hoc courts to prosecute those responsible for war crimes such as ethnic cleansing and systematic rape as a means of war in the former Yugoslavia (Resolution 808) and to prosecute, try and convict those responsible for the genocide in Rwanda (Resolution 955);

13.Condemns the systematic use of rape as a means of war in the former Yugoslavia, and believes that systematic rape should be considered a serious war crime comparable to terrorism and torture; calls therefore on the Member States, the Council and the Commission to seek the inclusion of systematic rape on the list of serious war crimes in the additional protocol to the Geneva Convention (Article 75, Fourth Protocol);

14.Calls on the Member States, the Council and the Commission to contribute to the smooth operation of the Court in The Hague, support the establishment of a permanent international criminal court in accordance with the plans drawn up by the United Nations General Assembly Commission on International Law and contribute to the continuation of United Nations missions which provide the basic elements required for the proper conduct of such procedures (e.g. human rights monitoring mission to the former Yugoslavia led by Mr Mazowiecki); reiterates the demand made in paragraph 16 of its abovementioned Resolution of 21 April 1994 that these objectives be made the subject of joint action within the meaning of Articles J.1 to J.3 of the EU Treaty;

15.Calls on the Commission to publish and forward to it a report on the application in the Member States of existing international agreements, in particular the 1948 Convention for the prevention and repression of the crime of genocide;

16.Calls on the Commission to draw up a review of Council of Europe Conventions in the field of human rights and minority rights which have been signed and ratified or not as the case may be by the Member States, and to use its influence to ensure that all EU Member States set an example in this respect;

Refugees and the violation of the rights of civilian populations

17.Calls for the application of international texts (UNHCR Statute for Refugees of 1 January 1951, Convention relating to the Status of Refugees of 28 July 1951, Convention relating to the Status of Stateless Persons of 28 September 1954) on the protection of refugees and civilian populations, and calls on the Council and the Commission systematically to refer to these standards in their relations with states which violate such international laws and customs;

18.Condemns the use of the principle of non-interference in the internal affairs of a state as a pretext for not protecting the victims of civil wars, ethnic conflicts and repression by dictatorial governments, thereby ignoring the issue of the rights of persons displaced within their country, when the majority of victims of present-day conflicts are civilians;

19.Calls on the Commission to publish and forward to it a report on constitutional, legislative and administrative practices in the Member States with regard to the definition and reception of refugees, the granting of the right of asylum and the links between these practices and the current situation regarding population movements outside the Union;

20.Insists on the need to promote understanding and mutual respect between the various religious persuasions in question, of whatever kind they may be, while reasserting the fundamental difference between religious practice and extremist and dangerous excesses resulting from a tendentious interpretation by fanatical elements;

Rise of fanaticism and expressions thereof

21.Is concerned at the rise of fanaticism and intolerance in a number of regions of the world (in contrast to the neutral and non-religious nature of the constitutional state), the first signs of which are violations of the freedoms of opinion, expression and artistic creation, and is opposed to policies which in the name of religious values and faith, attack the dignity of the individual and the principles of the constitutional state; condemns again the attitude of governments such as those of Iran (inter alia as regards Salman Rushdie) and Sudan;

22.Condemns the violations by public or private organizations of the rights of artists or media personalities, recalling the support it has given to promoting these fundamental freedoms by awarding the Sakharov Prize (European Parliament award for the defence of human rights) to the Oslobodenje newspaper (1993) and the writer Taslima Nasrin (1994); recalls its support for the free exercise of the profession of journalist, expressing particular concern at recent developments regarding journalists in Russia and the attacks which they, like members of all the other intellectual professions, are subjected to on a daily basis in Algeria;

23.Calls on the Council systematically to issue statements on attacks by terrorist groups or governments against intellectuals, artists and journalists, and urges the governments of Member States to grant asylum to the victims of fanaticism;

24.Recalls that the promotion of respect for diversity and cultural differences can only be envisaged as part of the inalienable right of women and men to protection from attacks leading to physical and mental injury, and that violations of freedom of expression are the first signs of intolerance leading to a more general denial of the rights of individuals and minorities;

Minority rights

25.Endorses the conclusions of the UN World Conference on Human Rights (Vienna, June 1993) and the Summit of Heads of State and Government of the Member States of the Council of Europe (Vienna, October 1993) on minority rights, and the initiatives taken by the Union in this field, consisting in the joint action launching a Pact on Stability in Europe;

26.Condemns, in view of its exploitation of the rise of nationalism and tensions between national groups, the Turkish Government's attitude to the Kurdish population and, in particular, to six Kurdish Members of Parliament who were imprisoned following the rulings of the State Security Court in Ankara; remains deeply attached to the respect owed to Mr Mehdi Zana, who was convicted for statements made before the European Parliament, and in particular its human rights subcommittee; denounces the use of terrorism (communities such as the Alawites being caught in the cross-fire between fundamentalists and security forces); urges the Indonesian Government to respect the UN decisions on the rights of the populations of East Timor;

27.Condemns the continued persecution of the Marsh Arabs of Southern Iraq by Saddam Hussein, his attacks on the Iraqi Kurds and his ruthless repression of any dissent in Iraq;

28.Notes the international community's current inability to find a satisfactory solution to the conflict in the former Yugoslavia and to put an end to the blatant human rights violations perpetrated in the name of ideas that are diametrically opposed to the values of universalism and tolerance which are fundamental to the establishment of legal and political systems protecting minority rights;

29.Deeply regrets the fact that the Union and the international community in general have criminally failed to support democratic forces, the peacekeeping forces and the independent media in all parts of the former Yugoslavia, and are still failing to find the (modest) political and financial resources required to do so;

30.Condemns the military aggression against the civilian population of Chechnya, which is an infringement of international agreements on the protection of human rights such as the Helsinki Final Act, the final documents of Vienna and Madrid and the Paris Charter for a new Europe, and the fundamental principles of the OSCE as defined in the Budapest Declaration; accordingly calls on the European Union, its Member States and the other countries in the international community to exercise every useful and necessary pressure on the central government of the Russian Federation to obtain the despatch of a permanent mission from the OSCE; rejects the conclusions drawn at international level, in particular as regards reactions to violations of human rights and the attack on sections of the civilian population in Chechnya;

31.Urges the Union - in particular on the basis of the Pact on Stability in Europe, the conclusion and implementation of all kinds of agreements signed with third countries and the maintenance of political dialogue with those countries - to continue to protect the rights of minorities and populations in so far as they concern primarily individuals and their fundamental rights; calls on each Member State, the Council and the Commission, as the Union's contribution to the International Decade for Indigenous Peoples, to attach special importance in their relations with third countries to respect for the rights, cultural identity and environment of these peoples and, for instance, propose that instruments be set up to enable them to be involved in taking decisions on development aid;

32.Calls for the inclusion in the Treaties of an explicit undertaking by the Union to protect and promote each cultural group which has been historically present in each of its regions, in particular the smaller groups;

33.Calls on the Council and the Commission to act on the conclusions of the UN Vienna Conference on Human Rights and the Council of Europe summit, in particular by supporting the implementation of the Declaration on the rights of persons belonging to national or ethnic, religious and linguistic minorities (UN General Assembly, 18 December 1992), maintaining contacts with the UN Centre for Human Rights in Geneva, which provides expert advice in this area, urging the Member States and applicants for membership to sign the framework convention adopted by the Council of Europe and to support the drafting of a protocol to the European Convention for the protection of Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms; intends to restart the discussion on the status and the definition of 'minorities' so as not to be accused of not defining its own obligations in this field;

34.Welcomes the fact that the OSCE High Commissioner for Minorities took up his duties on 1 January 1993;

35.Expresses its support for the administrator delegated by the Union to Mostar for a period of two years starting on 27 July 1994 to seek reconciliation between Serbs, Croats and Muslims to allow coexistence between communities with different and yet interconnected histories and cultures;

36.Proposes that the Council, the Member States and the Commission draw up an interinstitutional declaration stating the determination of the European institutions and their representatives to promote greater tolerance, steps to recognize, value and learn about differences and the rejection of all forms of exclusion, in particular with respect to religious beliefs, so that fanaticism is never confused with the expression or practice of a religion;

Development of the right of intervention and humanitarian action

37.Rejects categorically reference to the principle of non-interference in a country's internal affairs and endorses the application of a right of humanitarian intervention, convinced that the principle of national sovereignty cannot apply in the face of evidence of violations of human rights and of basic democratic principles;

38.Notes the resolutions adopted by the UN Security Council establishing a right of intervention - in the broad sense of the term - on humanitarian grounds and on the grounds of respect for human rights (in particular Resolution 929 of 22 June 1994, based on Chapter VII of the Charter, approving a multinational operation on humanitarian grounds in Rwanda and Resolution 836 of 4 June 1993 on the protection of six regions in Bosnia-Herzegovina, designated as security zones in March and April 1993);

39.Affirms that it is absolutely vital that a system of prevention be set up rapidly to avoid the occurrence of crises, which the international community is at present tragically not equipped to resolve;

40.Calls on the Commission to forward to the Council and the European Parliament a report supplementing the annual report by its ECHO intervention agency and define possible political means of intervention and procedures to be implemented (sending observers, peace missions, protection of humanitarian convoys, financial support for NGOs, etc.) in order to assess them in terms of cost-effectiveness and eventually distinguish between establishing an external policy based on respect for human rights and establishing a humanitarian policy that is unable to cope with the strategic and even economic implications of the problems involved;

41.Welcomes the efforts of the United Nations to promote the transparency of the trade of major weapons systems through a voluntary register; considers, however, that this register must become mandatory and include all types of man-portable arms;

42.Notes with dismay that all efforts to stem international arms transfers have so far been unsuccessful, due to increasing arms smuggling and also to the renewed efforts of the military industries of many countries, including those of the European Union, to increase their market shares;

43.Calls on the Council, Commission and the national governments to implement immediately the eight principles set out by the European Council to govern the granting of licences for individual arms exports;

44.Calls on the Council to take a common position and undertake a joint action to obtain a total ban on anti-personnel landmines and blinding weapons;

REACTIONS FROM THE INTERNATIONAL COMMUNITY

Links between respect for human rights, democratization and development

45.Reiterates its concern to see the coherent and determined implementation of the abovementioned resolution of the Council and the Member States on democracy, human rights and development;

46.Notes the resolutions of the ACP-EU Joint Assembly, particularly those on the broadening and deepening of democracy, welcoming the establishment of mechanisms to enable human rights to be referred to and debated in the Joint Assembly; believes it important to support moves to strengthen and make more effective the African Commission of Human Rights established by the Organization of African Unity;

47.Underlines the great importance of the NGOs involved in this field, with which it intends to develop increasingly close cooperation, including the mutual exchange of information of every kind and the despatch of documentation on respect for human rights;

48.Stresses that trade agreements concluded by the Community and its Member States with third countries must be conditional on respect for human rights and democratic principles, including economic and social rights, as well as the right to a healthy and non-polluted environment;

49.Reiterates its support for the inclusion of social and environmental clauses in the multilateral trading system as long as these are not an excuse for protectionist trade barriers; supports the efforts in this direction by the Council and Commission and condemns the economic exploitation of prisoners, women and children throughout the world;

50.Is deeply disturbed at the rising incidence of manifestations of social exclusion and, while supporting the Commission's and Council's stated objectives for the World Summit on Social Development (UN, Copenhagen, March 1995) - namely to promote the progress of social rights with reference to the ILO Conventions (particularly those on the freedom of association and collective bargaining, child labour and forced labour), urging the Member States to ratify them and ensuring that they are applied in practice - calls on the Commission to publish annually an account of trade, development and cooperation relations with third countries, listing for each State the relevant international texts it has signed and ratified;

51.Notes the important role of electoral aid and support to projects aimed at strengthening the rule of law at institutional level in accordance with the principle of good governance (21 countries involved according to the Belgian Presidency's interim memorandum), and endorses the Council's comment stressing the progress of representative democracy and the shared concept of universal human rights in Latin America and the Caribbean, while keeping a watchful eye on the situations in Peru, Guatemala, Cuba, Jamaica and Colombia and supporting the programme adopted in San José in favour of activities promoting human rights in the Central American isthmus;

International action plans

52.Notes with satisfaction the conclusions of the UN World Conference on Human Rights, congratulates the Commission on providing support to enable NGOs to participate in a significant way in this great event, and welcomes the Conference's emphasis on a concept of human rights and fundamental freedoms - which it proclaims to be universal, indivisible, inalienable and indefeasible - centred on the human person;

53.Intends to give particular support to further action needing to be taken in the following areas:

(a)combating anti-semitism, racism, xenophobia and other forms of intolerance, by proposing that specific provisions be included in the treaties to stress that the Union is categorically opposed to intolerance in any form, particularly racism and anti-semitism,

(b)equal opportunities and fundamental rights for women, firstly by calling on the Commission to take a stand at the Beijing Conference (UN, September 1995) with a view to ensuring compliance with the existing international instruments, secondly by advocating the extension of the definition of serious violations prohibited at all times and in all places of the rights of persons protected by the 1949 Geneva Conventions to include rape and sexual attacks and, finally, to publish an annual report for Parliament on violence against women, as a contribution to the work of the UN's special rapporteur on this issue, stating how this phenomenon is taken into account in the Union's external policy,

(c)the rights of the child, by encouraging the signature, ratification and application of the Convention on the Rights of the Child and accession to the ILO recommendations (particularly No. 36) aimed at preventing the performance of forced or compulsory labour by a child, by welcoming the new awareness of the involvement of children in wars (meeting of South-East Asian countries in October 1994 on the protection of children) and by supporting the drafting of an optional protocol to the Convention on the Rights of the Child relating to the sale of children, child prostitution and pornography involving children, together with the basic measures to be taken to prevent and eliminate these practices; as well as by making the conclusion of all trade or development agreements subject to a minimum requirement concerning respect for human rights, i.e. the honouring of undertakings freely entered into pursuant to international texts,

(d)persons belonging to national, ethnic, religious and linguistic minorities, by reiterating in particular its respect for indigenous peoples and their environment, and calling on the Commission to follow up its efforts at, for example, the first EU Gypsy Congress (Seville, May 1994) to enable the Roma and other Gypsy groups to use their own language,

(e)persons susceptible to exclusion or discrimination as a result of their sexual or social behaviour or physical difference or because of their physical and/or mental disability, by calling on the Council and Commission, and each Member State in its relations with third countries, to promote the protection of the individuals in question, particularly by reference to relevant general or specific international instruments,

(f)the right not to be tortured, by extending (inter alia through budgetary measures) the work of centres for combating torture and promoting rehabilitation, following up the reports of committees set up pursuant to existing international conventions, and supporting action to search for those who have disappeared,

(g)the right not to be sold and traded as a human being, be it woman, child or man, including special protection for women who are the victims of women's trade from third countries to the Union, especially by guaranteeing their non-expulsion; also strict prevention of non-controlled and commercial trade in organs of human beings, taken from the living as well as from the dead,

(h)the use of the death penalty, by condemning this practice (according to Amnesty International at least 1831 executions took place in 32 countries in 1993, although the real number was probably much higher) and by calling on the Council to advocate clemency in all cases and to work towards abolition through support for the drafting of conventions banning the death penalty,

(i)education, by encouraging realistic measures in the fields of teaching, development aid and aid to democratization, and calling upon the Commission to make specific proposals to Parliament aimed, firstly, at promoting the knowledge and respect of others and, secondly, at outlining the EU's contribution to the UN programme on a Human Rights Education Decade; in this connection, calls on the Commission to prepare a specific programme to support cultural and information initiatives organized, in particular, by local institutions, women's and youth organizations, voluntary organizations and universities, based on the links between preserving memories of the past and preparing for the future in the context of measures to be adopted to combat revisionism, racism and anti-semitism,

(j)methods for implementing, monitoring and following up the World Conference, by calling on the Commission to embark on a specific cooperation project with other public international institutions responsible for guaranteeing respect for human dignity, and by encouraging the Council and Commission to increase financial support for the High Commissioner appointed in February 1994 and for the Human Rights Centre in Geneva;

54.Approves the conclusions of the Summit of Heads of State and Government of the Council of Europe (Vienna, October 1993); welcomes the adoption of protocol No 11 to the European Convention on the Protection of Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms, concerning the reform of human rights protection mechanisms (establishment of a single Court) and the recent accession of new Member States;

55.Demands from the Council and Commission a systematic policy of involving and supporting NGOs active in the field of human rights, and wishes to see an appropriate forum for collaboration placed at the disposal of these organizations, particularly in the context of international conferences;

56.Reiterates its call for accession by the European Union to the European Convention on Human Rights;

57.Intends to give particular support to follow-up action in the following areas:

(a)combating racism and xenophobia, by supporting projects such as European Youth Week (European youth campaign against racism, xenophobia, anti-semitism and intolerance) and - on the same principle, but in a more lasting form - calling on the Commission to provide in its draft education and training programmes for visits to remembrance sites in Europe as a means of combating attempts at revisionism, in particular by instituting a world day of commemoration to preserve the memory of the Holocaust and acts of genocide throughout the world,

(b)combating racism and xenophobia in police forces and armies by providing human rights courses as part of training and by promoting, for example, the rapid integration of ethnic minority officers in police forces,

(c)stressing first of all the special role of the media in transmitting values of tolerance and multi-ethnic coexistence, and drawing attention to the undesirable and dangerous effects of the use of the media in the opposite sense, e.g. to incite racial, religious or political hatred,

(d)the rights of minorities, by encouraging the signature of the framework convention on the protection of national minorities (adopted in November 1994 and signed by 22 States in February 1995) and the European Charter of Regional or Minority Languages (which was adopted in 1992 but has not yet entered into force for want of sufficient ratifications);

58.Notes the transformation of the CSCE into the OSCE at the Budapest Summit (December 1994) and the organization's concern with the rise in nationalism, and approves its adoption of additional provisions aiming - while taking due account of United Nations resolutions - to reconcile the principles of non-interference and respect for territorial integrity with the respect of human rights, including the rights of minorities;

59.Approves the conclusions of the International Conference on Population and Development (September 1994 in Cairo) concerning the equality of the sexes, the need for independence for women - particularly through education - and the right to health in relation to reproduction and family planning, placing particular stress on the progress needing to be made in the areas of equality of opportunity and women's rights;

MOVES TO MAKE A CLEAR LINK BETWEEN RESPECT FOR HUMAN RIGHTS AND THE PROMOTION OF DEMOCRACY AS A BASIS FOR THE EUROPEAN UNION'S FOREIGN POLICY

60.With a view to drawing a clear connection between respect for human rights and the promotion of democracy as a basis for the European Union's external policy, encourages, firstly, the policy of asserting that the right to participation in the political process is a fundamental and universal human right, as is the establishment of representative democracy (paragraphs K61 and K62 of the Council Memorandum) and, secondly, the continuation of joint activities including the observation of elections and electoral assistance (Russia, South Africa, Middle East and Mozambique);

61.Calls for international financial institutions to push for social and human rights provisions in structural adjustment projects;

62.Calls for aid programmes promoting democratization and respect for human rights to be introduced for the Mediterranean area as a first step, and then for a wider human dimension project, aimed at defining a fully-fledged common policy involving the creation of institutional and administrative partnerships and electoral assistance, for the purpose of rationalizing the human rights and democracy aspects of programmes now covering several regions and geared essentially towards Central and Eastern Europe (PHARE) and the former USSR (TACIS);

63.Endorses the insertion of 'human rights clauses' or 'democratic clauses' and clauses on protection of minority rights into all agreements including interim agreements concluded by the Community with third countries, and calls for the establishment within the Commission of a proper monitoring service making it possible to police the application of these clauses and to enable Parliament to express its views;

64.Calls on the Commission to submit to it its legal opinion on the value of such clauses and on the action which might be taken in the case of failure to comply with them and to set out clearly the criteria which will be used in evaluating to comply;

65.Calls on the European Union and its Member States to make the implementation and validity of agreements with third countries conditional on the actual application of the human rights and democracy clauses contained in the agreements; welcomes in this connection the current suspension of the ratification procedure for the interim agreement between the European Union and the Russian Federation;

66.Demands the automatic inclusion, in the context of political dialogue, for example at Association Council meetings, of an item concerning respect for human rights, in view of its continuing concern at the attempts to isolate the subject from the sphere of ordinary relations between the Union and third countries; with this in mind, welcomes the attitude adopted by the Council vis-à-vis China (paragraph G28 of the memorandum), where the human rights situation remains most worrying;

67.Calls on the Commission to establish in open debate with the competent bodies of Parliament for the start of each year an action programme and priorities for human rights and democratization in that year, and further to report to Parliament at the end of that year on how the programme has been carried out;

68.Insists that any executive decisions by the Commission to establish so-called 'satellite bodies' concerning human rights, democratization, electoral assistance or crisis prevention should not be taken until there has been a thorough discussion with the competent bodies of Parliament;

69.Calls for the establishment at an appropriate level of an inter-institutional working party, particularly between Parliament and Commission, to ensure more effective cooperation and transparency in work on human rights, democracy and electoral obeisance;

PROPOSALS TO STRENGTHEN THE HUMAN RIGHTS AND DEMOCRATIZATION DIMENSION OF THE EU's EXTERNAL POLICY IN THE RUN-UP TO THE 1996 INTERGOVERNMENTAL CONFERENCE

70.Makes the following eleven proposals for the 1996 Intergovernmental Conference, some for action at institutional level and others to be applied in the follow-up to the debates ignited by the preparation of this conference:

(a)explicit reference to be made in the body of the Treaty, perhaps in the form of a preamble referring in particular to the Union's external policy, to the common declaration by the European Parliament, the Council and the Commission of 5 April 1977 on fundamental rights,

(b)all external policies (trade policy, development and cooperation policy, common foreign and security policy) to be merged into a common policy based on respect for human dignity,

(c)inclusion of clear references to respect for human rights and democratic principles in bilateral agreements with third countries,

(d)an 'essential element' clause to be included in all agreements concluded by the Union with third countries in the framework of the implementation of the policy on 'positive measures and conditionality' applied to all policies forming the Union's external policy,

(e)Commission and Council to be required to publish annually a memorandum on their policy in this area, setting out action taken to follow up Parliament's resolutions,

(f)Commission to be required to provide Parliament with information to assist it in expressing an opinion on the suspension of relations with a third country for reasons linked to failure to respect human rights and democratic principles,

(g)Commission to be required to draw up sanction mechanisms which will allow the European Union and its Member States to coordinate their relations with third countries when human rights have been violated, and to defend the restoration of human rights in a credible manner,

(h)Council to be required to act on a resolution adopted in Parliament by a two-thirds majority in the field of human rights and democracy,

(i)prevention of attacks on human dignity to be included as one of the objectives of the Union's external policy,

(j)requirement to coordinate action carried on with regional or international organizations, giving appropriate weight to non-governmental organizations, with the Commission publishing an annual report on the concrete form which this collaboration has taken, the obstacles encountered and the possible successes achieved,

(k)appointment of one Commissioner, reporting directly to the President of the Commission, with a specific human rights portfolio, to coordinate the human rights initiatives of other Commissioners, ensure the coherent and consistent application of programmes in the various sections of the budget, most notably in Subsection B-7, and act as a direct contact with Parliament;

POWERS OF THE EUROPEAN PARLIAMENT

71.Notes that, apart from its traditional role of dispensing parliamentary diplomacy in individual cases, its powers may essentially be summed up as the adoption of urgent resolutions, the granting or refusal of assent, the adoption of the budget and the adoption of annual reports on human rights, and intends once again:

(a)to reaffirm the importance of the power to adopt texts of major significance,

(b)to ensure that the Council and Commission, firstly, genuinely follow up its recommendations, in the widest sense, and genuinely take account of human rights in the definition and implementation of the CFSP, trade policy and development and cooperation policy and, secondly, set up an interinstitutional information mechanism between the Council, the Commission and Parliament,

(c)to rationalize still further the process for the adoption of appropriations relating to these policies which have a bearing on human rights and democracy, on the one hand, and on the monitoring of how they are used, on the other, starting with the work already carried out in the adoption two years ago of Chapter B7-52 - 'European Initiative for Democracy and Human Rights' (nine budget headings) - , aware that the field is certainly wider than this and hoping the Commission will provide still more information on the implementation and assessment of the programmes in question, taking account of the importance of action in the fields of education, raising awareness and helping to introduce or uphold democracy;

REACTIONS TO THE COUNCIL MEMORANDUM ON THE HUMAN RIGHTS SITUATION IN CERTAIN COUNTRIES

72.Approves measures to suspend financial and technical cooperation as the ultimate sanction for failure by the governments concerned to apply, inter alia, democratic principles and fundamental freedoms (Nigeria, Liberia, Somalia, Zaire, Sudan, Togo and Equatorial Guinea in 1993), while insisting that aid to the people should be maintained, particularly in the form of food aid, on condition that such aid does in fact reach the people who need it;

73.Approves the actions of the EU, represented by its Presidency, within the UN in tabling resolutions and making speeches on Iran, Iraq, Rwanda, Sudan, China, Burma, Zaire, Togo, Georgia and street children;

74.Refers to its earlier statements on the human rights situations mentioned in the Memorandum (Iran, Iraq, Syria, Algeria, Egypt, Rwanda, Burundi, Togo, Sudan, Nigeria, Senegal, Angola, South Africa, Turkey, Cyprus, Albania, Bosnia-Herzegovina, the former Yugoslavia, Georgia, China, Tibet, Burma (Myanmar), Indonesia (East Timor), Bangladesh, India (Kashmir), Guatemala, Haiti, Peru, Cuba and Colombia);

75.Refers to its earlier statements on El Salvador, Mexico (particularly the situation in the state of Chiapas), Brazil (children), Vietnam (government's attitude to the Unified Buddhist Church and representatives of other religious communities), Russia (violation of human rights and rights of civilians in Chechnya), Ethiopia, Equatorial Guinea, Mali (plight of the Tuaregs), Morocco (Western Sahara) and some states of the USA in which the death penalty is still applied, regretting that these situations were not mentioned in the Memorandum;

76.Instructs its President to forward this resolution to the Commission, the Council, the parliaments and governments of the Member States, the Council of Europe, the Secretary-General of the UN, the OSCE, the OAS, the OAU, ASEAN and the parliaments and governments of all the states referred to in this resolution.